128 TRAITS OF ORGANIZATIONS WHO ARE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE TITANS

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE COACH

CLICK TO SHARE

2For the past six years, I have been intensely studying some of the worlds most admired organizations: Zappos, Westjet, Apple, Amazon, and Southwest Airlines (just to name a few). Ive realized that all of these celebrated brands share common traits. I have compiled these 28 traits into one easy to read ebook, allowing you to gain actionable insights on these organizations to use within your business. Regardless of whether you are a small, medium or large organization you will be able to apply some, if not all, within your business today, to begin growing tomorrow.

Most organizations have something about them that separate them from their competition. While some excel at promoting their service or product through PR campaigns, rely on their dynamic sales team to grow their revenue, or invest heavily in marketing the organizations that invest in their customers first before any other tactic or strategy are the ones who are most admired. The proof is in the pudding. For example, take Zappos, Westjet and Amazon. The reason we love these organizations is because they take care of us as human beings, not as consumers. They treat us well and in return we take care of their bottom line by spending more with them, not their competition. Zappos, Westjet, and Amazon are all billion dollar organizations who believe they achieved their success from having a strict focus on their customers. This begs the question, why isnt everyone following their lead?

I have a theory. I believe our grandparents were better entrepreneurs and business professionals than we are. Now, before you get offended by my comment, give me an opportunity to explain. Remember when we couldnt rely on the internet to bring in new sales leads, or when PPC never existed? Yeah, neither do I. But they tell me that apparently our grandparents grew their businesses simply by delivering amazing service to their customers, which lead to referrals and repeat business. Now, as the metrics we need to focus the most on are referrals and repeat business, we are beginning to act a lot more like our grandparents. Why must we focus on these two metrics? Because, since you dont have to pay for the new leads or transactions that referrals and repeat business bring, they are the most profitable way to grow your business. When we deliver amazing service we motivate our loyal customers to

INTRODUCTION

CLICK TO SHARE

3attract their family and friends, which costs us next to nothing. We have all received a referral before and it was the easiest sale we ever made. We didnt have to objection handle or haggle with pricing. We received this referral because someone that the customer trusted, a friend or family member, told them to trust us. This is exactly why a well thought out customer experience strategy drives organic sales and is the most profitable way to grow a business.

People Buy Off People They Trust

If you like the ebook and learn from it, Id love it if you directed any family, friends, colleagues or employees to www.michelfalcon.com so they can receive their free ebook too.

Have a question while reading? Email me at michel@michelfalcon.com

CLICK TO SHARE

4TRAIT #1: Their Executives Want to Uncover the Good as Much as They Want to Discover the Bad

TIP

A good CEO or entrepreneur stays awake at night when they hear of poor service delivery. A great CEO actively tries to discover the bad so they can fix the problem. Its much more pleasing to continuously read positive customer reviews than read negative comments. However, I believe reading the negative feedback yields a more effective way to grow your business as you are being exposed to what your customers dislike about you and have the opportunity to make it right. The admired entrepreneur doesnt yell and shout when they hear of poor service. They roll up their sleeves and put the instances under a microscope to understand why this is happening. The admired CEOs team continuously briefs her on service delivery to ensure that it is top of mind.

Evaluate your management weekly or monthly meeting. Is there a portion reserved to brief your executives and leaders on whats happening with your customers? If not, implement this ASAP.

CLICK TO SHARE

5TRAIT #2: Delivering Memorable Service is the First Thought, Not an Afterthought

QUESTION

The worlds greatest brands all believe their business begins and ends with their customers. By delivering a memorable service experience they put their customers first. As of late, customer experience has been a hot topic for businesses of all sizes, leading most to scramble to develop their customer experience strategies and programs. The organizations that created their businesses with customer experience in mind have been reaping the financial benefits for years. You cant fake a customer centric culture. This type of culture needs to be genuine. Everyone must come together, regardless of department, to better the customer experience.

How was your program developed? Was it quickly thrown together or was it a well-thought out strategic initiative?

CLICK TO SHARE

6TRAIT #3: They Continuously Invest in Recognition, Training and Motivation for Their Frontlines

Our frontline employees are brand creators or brand destroyers. How we invest in them will determine whether our business flourishes to its potential or progresses slower than we anticipate. Why is it that we love visiting Apple stores or phoning Zappos contact center? Because their leadership team understands that an investment in their people is an investment in growth.

Its simple: happy employees produce happy customers. The happiest employees are ones that have had proper training before being handed their responsibilities, and they are recognized as individuals, not solely as a member of a department. Within these admired organizations, it is common to see the CEO shaking hands with his frontline employees for helping build the brand.

Evaluate your current customer service training for new and existing employees. Does it simply teach them about the ABCs of customer service? Or, are they educated on the high level aspects of customer experience? Theres a HUGE difference.

TIP

CLICK TO SHARE

7I once heard that R&D now stands for Rip Off and Duplicate. Although I think that sounds a bit shameless, its true. Some of the best strategies I have ever launched were borrowed from other organizations I admire with my own personal twist added. Research the companies you admire and see what they are doing to advance their customer experience programs. The key reason why Zappos, Amazon and Southwest are leaders is because they develop innovative ideas and push the bar very high within their respective industries.

Its worth noting that these organizations share their secret sauce and are very transparent. In 2009, my CEO, at the time, arranged for me to visit Zappos head office. I was given the opportunity to sit down in a private meeting with many of their key executives and ask probing questions about their business. To this day, I have never been in a more transparent meeting. These types of organizations share their strategies because they know its for the greater good of customer experience.

TRAIT #4: They Admire Companies Such as Zappos, Amazon and Southwest

QUESTION What one thing can your company borrow from an organization you admire and add your own spin to it?

CLICK TO SHARE

8One of the greatest phrases I was ever exposed to during my time at 1-800-GOT-JUNK? was inspect what you expect. After hearing it for the first time, I immediately practiced it continuously. We inspected what we expected by listening to countless customer service calls within our call center to ensure we were communicating the correct messaging. We also incorporated a mystery shop program where we hired shoppers to rate our Truck Team Members and provide us with feedback on their experience. The easiest part is gathering the information, what you do with it is the challenge. Ensure that you are not letting the feedback sit in a virtual storage unit and that you are taking action to make structural and operational improvements.

Inspecting what you expect is a great tool for organizations of any size. Allocate an hour a week to internally investigate your level of service. When faced with a circumstance where you feel that you could improve the experience, view it as an opportunity and not as a threat. Too often, an opportunity to improve service is ignored. Let me put it into context, if your check engine light on your car lite up would you ignore it? No. You would race to your mechanic to have it diagnosed and get the problem fixed to make sure your car was operating smoothly again. We need to start treating our customer service opportunities like the check engine light.

TRAIT #5: They Inspect What They Expect to Ensure Uninterrupted Service is Being Delivered

QUESTION What one thing can your business do to inspect what you expect?

CLICK TO SHARE

9It isnt uncommon to see Tony Hsieh (Founder, CEO of Zappos) to be seen within their contact center speaking to customers. This is the greatest and most affordable way for CEOs to learn about their business since they get the opportunity to understand what their frontlines and customers go through. Above all, the most valuable thing that comes from this is the immediate increase in employee morale. As a frontline employee, how awesome is it to be sitting next to your CEO, someone you may look up to, and theyre taking calls just like you. This is not anecdotal. Ive coached leaders of organizations to do this. For organizations that have never done this before, it might be a bit overwhelming for your employees as they have never experienced it before. Be sure to let your team know why you are doing this and that its not a spy tactic.

I once had a CEO tell me that he was too busy to allocate an hour a month. I immediately said, Get over yourself, youre not that important. He never spoke to me again and Im okay with that.

TRAIT #6: Their CEO Rubs Shoulders with Their Frontlines

Whether you are a CEO or mid-level manager, create a monthly recurring meeting maker within your email calendar and sit down with your frontline employees. I guarantee you will see immediate benefits by doing so.

TIP

CLICK TO SHARE

10

Have you ever been in a meeting when someone said but thats the way weve always done it. These words are the poison to innovating and bringing any type of customer experience strategy forward. If you want to advance your customer experience programs, you must be willing to break rules and colour outside the lines. If it aint broke, dont fix it is also a phrase that makes me cringe (I believe Blockbuster use to say this look at them now). Often customers want to be told what to do and how to purchase, by not innovating your strategies or processes you are simply letting your customers go through the motions when doing business with you. Always challenge the status quo. That is how a business becomes an innovator.

TRAIT #7: They Never Say Thats the way weve always done it

Have a look at your current customer experience programs. Take the program that has been updated the least and restructure it to keep it current and up to date.

TIP

CLICK TO SHARE

11

I was recently consulting with a company and all the acronyms were in the room (CEO, COO, CMO, CIO etc). I was asked to join their quarterly meeting to discuss their strategy and give insight on their customer experience. After the meeting I sat down with the CEO and was asked how I felt it went. I made note that everyone was suggesting ideas by using I and we as in I think we should do this or We need to be doing this At no point was the customer mentioned. I coached the company to speak on behalf of the customer, to be more customer centric as in our customers are saying that we need to

By comparison, I also worked with a small business, Im talking mom and pop type operation, and sat in on one of their weekly meetings. This company gets it they were naturally speaking from the viewpoint of the customer. Its funny how the smallest operations in the world understand customer centricity more than the largest brands. This is one of the reasons I love working with small businesses too.

Jeff Bezos (Founder, CEO of Amazon) once dressed up a mannequin and had it present in all executive meetings so that no one would say anything they wouldnt say in front of a customer.

TRAIT #8: The Word Customer is Mentioned at Least Once in Every Meeting

How often is your customer spoken about in each meeting? If its not every time, than you have an opportunity to make some improvements.

QUESTION

CLICK TO SHARE

12

As mentioned, your frontline employees will either build your organization or crush it. The same goes for your customer. If you deliver poor service, they will not do business with you anymore and tell 1,000 virtual friends not to do business with you either. Some organizations consider themselves to be a marketing company or a sales organization. The worlds most admired organizations believe they are in the people business as they consider their frontlines and customers to be what drives business growth. Similar to how our grandparents used to operate, we need to realize that nothing will grow our businesses more sustainably than focusing on our team members and customers.

TRAIT #9: They View their Frontlines and Customers as the Core of their Business

QUESTION What drives your business? Where do you allocate most of your budget?

CLICK TO SHARE

13

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning - Bill Gates (Co-founder and Chairman of Microsoft)

What an awesome quote. Its true, our most unhappy customers hold knowledge that will help us grow our businesses and save customers from buying with our competitors. At 1-800-GOT-JUNK? I, along with a colleague, launched our Complaint Resolution System. It allowed us to understand why our customers were complaining, the volume of complaints, what we needed to do about it and how we could deliver a better service. It was one of the greatest programs I have ever built. Every month we would take the data, look at it under a microscope and determine where we could improve. By doing this, we were able to reduce system wide complaints by 33% in one quarter. Too often we unenthusiastically address customer complaints because we view them as attacks on our business. As passionate business people, we get defensive when we feel attacked. Dont look at a complaint as an attack. Change your focus and consider it as an opportunity to right the wrong.

Have a customer complaint on your hands and dont know what to do about it? Email me michel@michelfalcon.com and Ill give you my best advice for a win, win situation.

TRAIT #10: Their Most Angry Customers are Platforms to Develop Strength and Learning

Does your organization currently have a Complaint Resolution System that escalates monitors and resolves customer complaints within one business day?

QUESTION

CLICK TO SHARE

14

The customer is not always right! I say this very confidently and I realize it may sound contradictory to everything I believe in about business. Our frontline employees work extremely hard to deliver amazing service to our customers and do not deserve to be degraded or treated poorly. There are many different types of customers and some are straight up @ssholes that seem to get some sort of kick out of belittling our frontlines. This is never okay. When your frontlines are being treated poorly by a customer, feel free to fire them. Your business wont be hurt by losing one customer, but it can take a major hit if you lose one of your valued frontline employees who works incredibly hard to build your brand.

I once heard of an amazing story about Herb Kelleher (Co-founder and Former CEO of Southwest Airlines). Southwest would continuously receive a complaint letter from a customer after every time she flew with them. After receiving one too many letters from her, Herb sent a letter back that read:

Dear Mrs. Crabapple,

We will miss you.

Love, Herb.

I love it! Is it cheeky? Yes. Was it the right move? Yes! I believe it was the right move because clearly Southwest cannot exceed this customers expectations after many attempts.

TRAIT #11: They are Willing to Part with Customers Who are Demeaning their Employees

Dont lose sleep over customers who demean your frontlines or are unjustifiably complaining. You should be more concerned with your employees being demoralized.

TIP

CLICK TO SHARE

15

The first time I ever shopped with Zappos I spent $575.00. I didnt need the shoes I bought. I simply wanted to try out the service they so confidently promote. I know dozens of people that have also bought off Zappos because they wanted to experience the exceptional level of service Zappos provides. You see, as customers we want to be WOWed and whenever we hear of a company confidently promoting their service as the key aspect of their business, we become curious. After recognizing this behaviour, I began promoting Service Curiosity as a way to drive revenue to the organizations I consult for. Zappos was in the media 1000s of times from 2008-2010 (they are still consistently profiled, but 2008-2010 was their peak) and every time, they spoke about their level of customer service. By promoting their customer experience to the media, they increased their brand awareness which, if converted well, leads to sales.

TRAIT #12: Their Marketing and PR Campaigns Promote their Customer Experience to Drive Service Curiosity Revenue

Look at your Marketing and PR programs and see where you can incorporate some customer experience key messaging to increase sales.TIP

CLICK TO SHARE

16

Id take a passionate, high energy, personality filled candidate over a highly skilled applicant any day of the week. Weve heard all the sayings before hire for will, train for skill and its true. When it comes to customer service, you cant train someone to care, and caring is key to delivering amazing service. Customer service stars have something in their DNA which naturally motivates them to want to go above and beyond each and every time. Its a very admirable trait to have and because of it, they are highly recruited in todays business environment. One thing that is often overlooked in business is the cost that goes into hiring and firing. If you are not hiring correctly, depending on the size of your organization, it can set you back millions of dollars simply because you dont have the right HR practices in place.

TRAIT #13: HR Recruiting Tactics are Heavily Focused on Finding Customer Service Stars

Take a look at your current HR process. Where are you looking for your applicants? What questions are you asking them? Do you have the right strategy in place to recruit people with that special DNA? Remember, there is nothing wrong with poaching employees because often the best employees are not unemployed.

TIP

CLICK TO SHARE

17

Tony Hsieh has passed on a number of very talented people who could have made an immediate impact on their bottom line because they were a poor fit culturally. Ive witnessed it firsthand myself. There will be those candidates that you know will pay dividends immediately but in the long run you know they may hurt your culture. As much as you want to hire them, dont! Be confident that the right team member is out there and patience will find you that right candidate who will grow your business now and in the future.

Often HR teams have quotas to fill by a deadline which can lead to poor hires. Dont rush when hiring for will.

TRAIT #14: They Refuse to Hire Employees Who are Great Technically but Only Good Culturally

Have you ever hired incorrectly which ended up hurting your culture? What did it teach you?QUESTION

CLICK TO SHARE

18

Growing up, my grandfather always taught me to learn from those that had come before me. This is a big part of why I began working for 1-800-GOT-JUNK? as it gave me the opportunity to understand how a company grew from a $1000 investment to $100M+ per year. The same goes for customer experience. There are organizations that excel in delivering admired service. Whether you are a frontline employee, a mid-level manager or the CEO, by looking at the organizations that preceded you, you can learn that if you want to innovate, you must not fear failure. At times you may fail, and thats alright. Look at the organizations you admire to see where they struggled and learn from their mistakes.

TRAIT #15: They Learn From Those Who Have Come Before Them

Each year, select an organization you want to learn from and investigate. Read as many article as you can online, speak with people that work or have worked there before and try to visit their head offices. Youd be surprised how many organizations open their doors to the public.

To visit 1-800-GOT-JUNK? email tours@1800gotjunk.com . For Zappos, visit http://www.zapposinsights.com/tours

TIP

CLICK TO SHARE

19

There will always be that one person who asks whats the ROI To this question, you can confidently reply organic growth, repeat business, referrals, brand admiration, increased employee moralewant me to continue? If this person really wants to debate the success of Zappos, Amazon, Southwest and others, you have the winning argument.

Ive been in yearly strategic meetings where we are all fighting for a piece of the yearly budget. Marketing will get their share, PR has a portion, and IT will need developers. Too often, in organizations that dont focus on the customer, customer experience isnt given priority. However, the admired organizations allocate a significant portion of their yearly budget to invest in their customer experience. There is a reason why Tony Hsieh and Jeff Bezos have small marketing budgets; they are too busy investing in the customer, a surefire way to grow their businesses. I can promise you, when you bet against the customer by not allocating time or money to initiatives, you will lose.

TRAIT #16: Whats the ROI of Customer Experience? isnt Asked, its Understood

How much have you allocated to invest in customer experience programs and strategies this year? Whatever it is, double it!

QUESTION

CLICK TO SHARE

20

A big part of why Ive been able to create coach and speaking at conferences and is because of the six years of learning I had at 1-800-GOT-JUNK? As an organization, they simply get what its like to invest and focus on customer experience. Each quarter we had a Drive WOW piece to the strategic plan. Under Drive WOW, there were customer experience tactics that needed to be completed each quarter. As an organization, we knew what we needed to deliver on and by when. By having these tasks it helped with organizational alignments and ensured that no silos existed in the organization.

Remember, an investment in the customer is an investment in growth.

TRAIT #17: Customer Related Initiatives and Strategies Are Always On Yearly Strategic Plans

When completing your yearly strategic plans, ensure you are including at least two customer experience tactics per quarter.TIP

CLICK TO SHARE

21

Ive walked into organizations before and seen decals on the walls that say go above and beyond. Cute. Not only is this clich, its cheesy. As suggested earlier in the book, it all begins with how you hire your team. Team members that have the natural instinct of going above and beyond dont need to be reminded to do so. I have spoken to many frontline employees before, heck I was one not too long ago, and sometimes its organizations leaders that stop them from going above and beyond. When frontline employees witness their managers not willing to go the next mile for them as individuals, why should they?

We need to be continuously setting examples for our colleagues and challenge everyone to follow suit. Some of the greatest cultures have a level of healthy competition, where team members are trying to outdo their colleagues by always delivering exceptional service.

TRAIT #18: Going Above and Beyond is a Continuous Action, Not a Catch Phrase

If you want to fuel your frontlines to continuously deliver exceptional service, make sure you are giving them a positive employee experience first. There is no customer experience without employee experience first.

TIP

CLICK TO SHARE

22

Weve all worked in an organization that have silos erected so high we would get altitude sickness just peaking over them. Customer experience is the entire journey your customer goes through when doing business with you. This includes every department: Marketing, PR, IT, Call Center, Operations, HR, and Finance. That being said, when putting together world class customer experience programs you will quickly notice that you cant make just one department responsible for the customer, because it requires the entire organization to come together.

When consulting, it isnt uncommon for me to have a 10am meeting with the head of Marketing, a 1pm meeting with the VP of IT and then a 3pm with the leader of Operations, all in one day. I truly believe that because customer experience requires everyone to work together, it stops organizations from creating silos within their business.

TRAIT #19: They Believe That Organizational Silos are the Poison in Creating Customer Experience Strategies

How can you use customer experience to collaborate with each department?QUESTION

CLICK TO SHARE

23

An organization truly focused on their customers eagerly collects feedback. There is so much data available if you collect your customers feedback. Do not consider it a cost but an investment to understand your business. Collecting feedback is step one. Too often organizations collect feedback and dont do anything with it, making it a cost with no return on investment. If you arent going to do anything with the feedback, you might as well do something else with your time and resources. When done correctly, customer feedback will tell you what you are doing well and what you are doing poorly. Use what you do well to find out what your customers love about your service or product and use that information to acquire more customers. Continue to do these things repetitively. By finding out what your customers think you are doing poorly, you have the ability to create retention strategies because you gain insight on what your customers dont appreciate about your service.

TRAIT #20: Customer Feedback isnt a Cost, its a Growth Engine

Collect feedback and hold monthly customer feedback meetings. These meetings should be short and have a small agenda. Each month, allocate a host who will gather all the data in a one page, easy to read document that is distributed before the meeting. Ensure that at least one representative is present from each department, this helps with alignment and ensures no silos exist. After every meeting, each representative should commit to taking action on one thing they discovered from the feedback to better the customer experience. Also, allocate deadlines if you choose to move forward with any strategies, tasks or tactics.

TIP

CLICK TO SHARE

24

When I coach organizations to deliver better customer experience I get them to promise me that they will never say the words customer satisfaction again. Customer satisfaction doesnt grow your business because it doesnt fuel your customers to passionately promote your product or service. Let me give you an example:

Customer Satisfaction

I visit a restaurant and the drinks come out cold, the food is hot and the server is polite. Therefore, I am satisfied. They have not given me a reason to be an advocate of their restaurant, to passionately tell my family and friends because they have only met my expectations, and not exceeded them.

Customer Loyalty

The next restaurant I go to also has cold drinks, warm food and happy team members. However, this restaurant gave my child a etch-a-sketch to keep her busy while mom and dad peacefully drank wine. Also, the kitchen staff was able create a gluten free dish for my wife. Im ecstatic because they went above and beyond, immediately turning me into a loyal customer. Whenever someone mentions the name of this restaurant, I will passionately tell them of my experience.

If you are only meeting customer expectations youre not giving your customers a reason to promote your business. If you do at least one thing to WOW them, they will grow your business by recruiting their family and friends. Remember, my grandparent theory? This is exactly how they grew their business.

TRAIT #21: Where Customer Satisfaction was Exceptional in the 90s, Loyalty Represents Now and the Future

Does your organization consistently strive for customer satisfaction? If you do, stop! Loyalty is what will bring you to the next level.

QUESTION

CLICK TO SHARE

25

Delivering exceptional service is what you must strive for. Athletes dont strive to win the silver or bronze medal, they go for gold. Your business should want to deliver a gold medal worthy performance and not be satisfied with silver. I understand that there will be times when you dont deliver amazing service and thats okay, were human and we make mistakes. Similar to athletes, envision what winning the gold medal feels like and the pleasure you get from accomplishing this.

TRAIT #22: Good Service is Never Good Enough

If you were a judge would you give your organization a gold medal for your service or are you receiving a participation ribbon?

QUESTION

CLICK TO SHARE

26

Customer experience is sales! A strong customer experience leads to organic sales (referrals, repeat business). If your value proposition doesnt include superior service than what are you selling exactly? By focusing on your customer experience you are more aligned in being able to find solutions for your customers. No matter how innovative your product or service may be, people will not buy off you if your service is subpar. Ive worked with many sales teams before and often Im asked for customer reviews to incorporate within their presentation. These reviews highlight the organizations superior service because at the end of the day the buyer wants a hassle free experience and to be taken care of.

TRAIT #23: Customer Experience is the Foundation of a Superior Sales Strategy

Incorporate customer reviews or case studies within all your sales documents and presentations.TIP

CLICK TO SHARE

27

I once I walked into their contact center and each workspace had a five digit number above it. I asked what the number represented, and was told Oh, thats their employee number. We have so many call center agents that many of them have the same name. I can assure you that they were taken down by the end of my engagement with the organization.

In high school, my Principal had the most intense memory, he literally knew everyone by name. Keep in mind, I went to a high school that had only approximately 450 people but thats still very impressive. I admired this trait because it made people feel special and acknowledged. What an awesome advantage a CEO or entrepreneur would have if he knew everyones name. Is this an easy task? No. But, its worth a try.

TRAIT #24: Frontline Employees are Known by Name, Not by Number

To remember someones name repeat it in your head three times after meeting them. Unless youve been concussed one too many times, you wont forget their name.

TIP

CLICK TO SHARE

28

Our customers hold us accountable for the way we deliver our service or product to them. Often, its how we are measured. The most admired organizations also hold each other accountable for service delivery. A lot of this has to do with alignment; a misaligned organization will forget to always strive for customer loyalty and exceptional service. If this is happening with your organization, ensure you bring this up with the department or individual that may have their own agenda.

TRAIT #25: Accountability to Their Customers is Equal to Accountability to Their Colleagues

Is there a department or individual that isnt aligned with your customer experience strategy? What one thing can you do this month to help get back on track?

QUESTION

CLICK TO SHARE

29

We must strive for customer loyalty to create sustainable, profitable businesses. I believe that the Net Promoter Score (NPS) is an absolute must for businesses of all sizes to determine what their customers appreciate of them and what drives their customers to their competition.

NPS is a metric that asks a primary and secondary question.

On a scale from 0-10, where 10 is absolutely and 0 is absolutely not, how likely is it that you would refer [this company] to a friend or colleague.

- Detractors will rate you 0-6. These are the customers who are out for blood and will go out of their way to hurt your brand. Organizations can leverage the data gathered from these customers to increase customer retention.

- Passives will rate you 7-8. These types of customers arent known to be influencers and often dont pass along opinions, good or bad.

- Promoters will rate you 9-10. These types of customers are your external marketing team. They will passionately recruit their family and friends. Organizations can leverage information gathered from Promoters to increase customer acquisition.

Depending on the score that is given, you will ask your secondary question.

- 0-8 (Detractors and Passives): what could [this company] do to earn a better recommendation?

- 9-10 (Promoters): what does [this company] do particularly well to earn your recommendation?

This is where you will obtain a lot of value and insight on your customers. The responses that are collected here are known as verbatim comments.

TRAIT #26: Net Promoter Score is a Part of Their Metrics

CLICK TO SHARE

30

How do you calculate your NPS score?

Why should your organization use NPS?

There is definitely a fair share of naysayers of NPS for a few different reasons. At 1-800-GOT-JUNK? I lived and breathed NPS for years and saw firsthand how an organization can focus on NPS and produce financial results by increasing organic growth rates such as referrals and repeat purchases. Together we achieved a high of 85 and experienced an increase in revenue from our existing customers and new ones that were recruited by our Promoters.

Why should your organization use NPS?

There is definitely a fair share of naysayers of NPS for a few different reasons. At 1-800-GOT-JUNK? I lived and breathed NPS for years and saw firsthand how an organization can focus on NPS and produce financial results by increasing organic growth rates such as referrals and repeat purchases. Together we achieved a high of 85 and experienced an increase in revenue from our existing customers and new ones that were recruited by our Promoters.

There are two types of organizations that use NPS

Organization #1: The organization that focuses solely on the score. They become discouraged when the score declines and become overly enthusiastic when it increases. They treat it like a drug. Ill keep this section short as this is the wrong way to view NPS.

Organization #2: This organization balances the score, the verbatim comments and adoption.

The score: This organization evaluates their score and asks probing questions to understand why their score increased or decreased, determined to find the root cause for both increases and decreases.

CLICK TO SHARE

31

The verbatim comments: After their customers respond to the secondary question, this organization reads through all of the answers. Not a sample, ALL of them. By doing so, you will be able to identify trends and make operational and structural changes to your business.

Operational change example: 25% of your customers said in Q4 2012 that they had to wait too long to hear back from your organization after a service or sales request, therefore making them Detractors.

Solution: It would be advised to set a Service Level Agreement of one business day to respond to all requests in Q1 2013.

Adoption: This organization rallies behind NPS. Their CEO acts as the leader of their NPS program and mandates that everyone is educated on it. When new employees are hired, this organization provides their new team members with NPS handbooks that explain the program in full detail and include past results. Along with adoption, this organization celebrates success and learns from failures.

Ive always said, the score is for the score board, and the comments are for the playbook.

Question: What type of feedback survey are you using? Might there be an opportunity to include NPS?

*Net Promoter Score is a registered trademark of Fred Reichheld, Bain & Company, and Satmetrix.

QUESTION What type of feedback survey are you using? Might there be an opportunity to include NPS?

CLICK TO SHARE

32

We are willing to be misunderstood for long periods of time. Jeff Bezos (Founder, CEO Amazon)

When it comes to strategic growth, I also think there are two types of organizations.

Organization #1: Ones that are so stressed about their short term goals that they neglect long term success. They make decisions that are good for now but bad for longevity. They always ask for the immediate ROI and dismiss any plans that have a ROI that is a year out. Often these organizations get acquired at a low valuation or go out of business.

Organization #2: Similar to Amazon, they are willing to make the unpopular decisions that Wall Street may object to. These decisions are often customer focused. In the short term, they strengthen the customer experience but hurt the bottom line. These organizations, whether small, medium or large, understand that if you bet against the customer you will lose. Remember, the customer is the only person that can bankrupt the entire company by spending their income somewhere else.

Whether you are organization #1 or #2, you are constantly faced with decisions that will impact your customer experience. In my experience, betting on the customer will yield higher margins. After all, you do plan to be in business for the next five years, right?

TRAIT #27: Long Term Investments in Customer Experience Strategies are Accepted, Even When the ROI is Years Away

Be willing to be misunderstood for periods of time.TIP

CLICK TO SHARE

33

As an organization, you either love or hate social media. Its your call whether you warm up to it or let it be a detriment to your business. The organizations who love it embrace what it can do for them, which is:

- Have genuine conversations with your customers- Use it as a customer service channel to follow up on requests or questions- Heighten your brand awareness by being visible in a channel that scares some organizations- Make you an admired and fun brand

The organizations who despise social media do so because:

- They use canned answers to speak to their customers- Identify negative comments as a threat, not as an opportunity- Dont make it a priority or understand its a channel that needs attention

Make social media fun. Its your virtual presence, why wouldnt you want to be an admired brand that takes the time to engage your audience. Ask yourself this, if your customer called your 800# would you answer with a friendly hello or hang up on them? Social media is no different. If a customer engages with you via social media, not responding to them is like hanging up on them over the phone. Social media is your virtual contact center.

TRAIT #28: They Understand that Social Media will Either Love You or Crush You

View social media as your friend, not your foe TIP

CLICK TO SHARE

34

There you have it, the 28 Traits of Organizations Who Are Customer Experience Titans. Not as overly complicated as you may have imagined with a ROI that is very apparent. I love customer experience because often it requires very little investment and it is actionable. I will forever be able advocate of customer experience as the greatest way to grow businesses of all sizes.

Lets stay connected:

Email: michel@michelfalcon.comLinkedin: Michel FalconFacebook: Michel FalconBlog: http://michelfalcon.com/Twitter: @michelfalconInstagram: Michel Falcon

CONCLUSION

CLICK TO SHARE

35

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE COACH

LETS STAY CONNECTED

Email: michel@michelfalcon.comLinkedin: Michel FalconFacebook: Michel FalconBlog: http://michelfalcon.com/Twitter: @michelfalconInstagram: Michel Falcon

CLICK TO SHARE